Warrington Wolves' Jason Clark unsure of his rugby league future

JASON Clark admits it is hard to know what impact the coronavirus pandemic could have on where he will be playing rugby league next season.

For an Australian, plying his trade in Super League while his wider family is on the other side of the world in these difficult and unprecedented times, it is a testing period.

And with the 30-year-old’s current contract with Warrington Wolves ending in November, after joining from NRL club South Sydney Rabbitohs last season, there are so many unknowns to factor into the equation.

He is close to his father who recently returned home from his fifth visit to England in 18 months to spend time with his son, daughter-in-law and three granddaughters; while Clark has two older sisters too.

“Dad’s in the last week of isolation. He has had to stay at home in Oz for two weeks. He had to sign a waiver and tell them at the airport where he would be for the next two weeks. It’s been a bit hard for him but he’s doing what he has to do,” said Clark.

“He was here for about three-and-a-half weeks. My sister was away overseas in Vegas and when it all happened she had to cut her trip short with her husband and go home because she might not have been able to get back into Australia.

“It is difficult when I really do think about it. I’m very fortunate that none of us are sick at the moment with the problems that are going on in the world.

“So I’m lucky, otherwise I would be worrying about it a lot more and I’d want to be with them.”

In terms of any baring coronavirus would have on the decision to stay or return, whether he is offered a new deal or not, Clark said: “It’s hard. Obviously not playing at the moment is hurting my chances of being able to show the club that I want to stay, but really it is in the club’s hands.

“I believe the deadline for being able to talk to clubs is May 1. My manager’s said nothing will really happen until May 1.

“I haven’t heard anything yet officially from the club in that sort of aspect.

“It’s a bit difficult knowing whether I’m going back to Australia, or am I staying. Because if we were to be going back and everything in the world was normal, I need to know what we’re going to do because I’ve got three young daughters who, if we go back, need to go into school so we need to apply for schools, and we’d need to start organising shipping for all our stuff to go back in containers.

“So there’s a lot that we need to think about whenever it happens whether we’re staying or going back.

“But nobody can give answers. I’m not going to ask the club if they’re thinking of re-signing me because it’s the last thing on their mind at the moment, they’ve got other things to worry about and I fully understand that.”

He added: “My daughters have been going really well here.

“As much as they keep saying they miss Australia, that’s because they’re young kids and they have their cousins and that back there. Everything is back there for them, but this is home for us at the moment and we are loving the opportunity we’ve been given.

“It’s a bit of an unknown as to where we’ll be in the next six months.”

Loose-forward Clark made an impressive start to the season in the seven rounds before the pandemic hit home and the UK went into lockdown.

Like all his Wire teammates and elite athletes in all sports, he is having to maintain his fitness on his own from home while maintaining contact with teammates and coaches through WhatsApp.

He has been taking part in online sessions at a friend’s gym in Sydney.

“His name’s Travis, it’s a really good gym and he has players from all different NRL clubs who go there," said Clark.

“It’s been great. He starts at 5.15am in Oz, so that’s 7.15pm here. As much as it’d be good to do it in the morning, the night’s still good – apart from for the neighbours who are probably having dinner while I’m doing burpees. And with it being an attached house, the walls and floors are probably shaking from my bodyweight jumping around the lounge.

“But they talk to me through the app. It’s a video session, so they can see me and I can see them. It’s done really well with the way it’s organised.

“Even my daughters when they see me and hear me doing it they jump in every now and then. And my wife is looking to jump in now.

“We’re in it together.

“In a way, in as hard times as it is, I think it’s bringing a lot of families together.

“My wife and my daughters and I try to get a walk and a scooter ride each day, and the amount of people you see out walking at the moment I feel that you never used to see that.

“I can imagine it’s putting a lot of strain on some families being in each other’s pockets 24/7 but I like to think it’s bringing a lot of people together as well.”

But the experienced campaigner also highlighted a difficulty in resuming the season again when it is safe to do so.

“We were going to head into round eight when this all happened. I would say a lot of boys at all the teams by that point their bodies were conditioned to the whacks and the hits and the physicality of the game, and their match fitness would have kicked in and you’d have a good base level of fitness from the early rounds,” he said.

“But now everything’s come to a halt. As much as anybody can train as much as they want, there’s nothing like playing and getting the fitness you would in a game aspect.

“It will almost be like kicking off round one again and getting that base level back with the physicality and the soreness. You still get sore after games, but sometimes when you’ve played so many games in a row your body gets conditioned to it. But now it won’t be as conditioned to the whacks and hits that we get.

“Our staff will have been working on this straight away. Ade Gardner and Chris Baron were really good leading into the season to get us ready so I’m sure they’ll be on the computers putting together another little pre-season for us I imagine.”

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